BEULAH - Coyote Station power plant at Beulah was all systems go Monday, even though one of its main customers for electricity was experiencing major outages and pole collapses in the Fargo area.

A storm with ice and wind had taken down more than 300 poles from Buffalo east through the Red River region Sunday and Monday, leaving more than 12,000 customers in 60 communities served by Otter Tail Power Co. in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota without power.

Much of that electricity comes from the coal-fired Coyote station near Beulah, which is partly owned and fully operated by Otter Tail. Coyote plant manager Jan Rudolph said if it weren't for news reports, he wouldn't know there was a storm, based on power demand and output.

Rudolph said the power from Coyote is distributed on a high voltage line that stretches from Beulah out to Mapleton, near Fargo. That major 345,000-kilowatt transmission line had not been damaged or disrupted in the storm, Rudolph said.

Instead, poles and lines that feed off the main line have been damaged, and the company says that damage could spread if high winds continued.

Additional repair crews from Minnesota and North Dakota were called out to help restore power and repair damage, but their ability to get to the trouble spots was dependent on travel conditions.

Rudolph said power production at the Coyote sees wider fluctuations based on demand and supply across a multistate grid than it does because of isolated power interruptions caused by storms, even among its most direct customers.

"It's a whole different world with regional power," Rudolph said. "It's more of a big picture."

Coyote produces 420 megawatts of electricity made from coal mined by Dakota Westmoreland. The plant has 80 employees.

Otter Tail warned its customers to prepare for an extended outage at least into today, and possibly Wednesday for those in the most remote locations.

Western North Dakota power providers were lucky to be spared this storm, since many electric cooperatives are just recovering from big repair bills related to an October blizzard. caused extensive damage to poles and lines. throughout the region.